Happy belated Turkey Day!

Hope you and yours had a Tryptophantastic weekend of family, friends, food, fun, and football!

Family first.  Buddhists have a 49-day memorial service, I think because 7x7 means something in the belief structure.  I’ve never really been sure about the reasoning.  Anyway, we had the service on Saturday for my father.  It was predictably depressing, made more depressing by the fact we had it two days after Thanksgiving.  The void left by my dad’s absence was palpable.  It’ll be a long time before I get past this, if ever.

Friends came to the rescue.  After the service and the obligatory family lunch (another post-death tradition I don’t quite understand), I took the family to see some of my longtime friends.  When you’re in your forties and you are still great friends with people you met in the second grade, you’ve picked good friends.  We had a great time just hanging out, talking about life, playing basketball (cut short by sustained panting and cramping), and watching our kids play.  Made for an exhausting Saturday, but put the weekend on an uptick.

Food, food everywhere.  Some people are amazed that a fairly traditional Japanese family has a fairly traditional American Thanksgiving with turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and cranberry sauce.  The only bow to Internationalism was the Chinese chicken salad and the white rice.  Polished off the meal on Thursday with a 6-seat $10 NLHE family tournament.  Took second after misplaying Ace-freakin’-rag against my brother-in-law.  I had a small chip lead when we got head-to-head.  He pushed on the very first hand, and I put him on a desperation steal.  Turns out he had Big Slick and I was crippled early.  I managed to double up a few times to make it somewhat interesting but busted out with 98s against his 73s that flopped a flush.  Literally, IGHN.

Football?  The 49ers suck.  

• How about that tank job by the Texans?  Gee, that wasn’t suspicious or anything…  And what is it with the Texans and guys named Bush?

• Every frickin’ week I play against Scurvy, LT goes off for 700 yds and 14 TDs.  Well, at least both times this year.

• If the 49ers don’t win the Reggie Bush Sweepstakes, they should trade their draft pick to a team that needs Matt Leinart (Raiders, Cowboys, Jets, Miami, etc.) for two OL, then they should break Kwame Harris’ legs, and buy out his contract with an injury settlement.

• The Bears are winning with smoke and mirrors.  They’ll be dangerous on a sloppy field in the playoffs, so look out if they get home field advantage.  But seriously, they’re not very good.  

• And it might be time to count out the Pats.  They’ll still win the horrible AFC East, and Bellichick will have them ready for a run, but playoff road games will probably kill them.  As the likely #4 seed, they’ll face the top second place team which will be Pittsburgh, San Diego, or Kansas City.  If they win that game, they’ll be against the #1 seed which will be… Indy in Indy.

And RIP, Mr. Miyagi.